• Recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value
• Affirm faith in the inherent dignity of all human beings and in the intellectual, artistic, ethical, and spiritual potential of humanity

2. Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love

• Accept that with the right to use natural resources comes the duty to prevent environmental harm and to protect the rights of all human and non-human animals
• Affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased responsibility to promote the common good

3. Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful

• Ensure that communities at all levels guarantee human and non-human animal rights and fundamental freedoms and provide everyone an opportunity to realize his or her full potential
• Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible

4. Secure Earth’s bounty and beauty for present and future generations

• Recognize that the freedom of action of each generation is qualified by the needs of future generations
• Transmit to future generations values, traditions, and institutions that support the long-term flourishing of Earth’s human & non-human animal and ecological communities. In order to fulfill these four broad commitments, it is necessary to:

5. Protect and restore the integrity of Earth’s ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life

• Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives
• Establish and safeguard viable nature and biosphere reserves, including wild lands and marine areas, to protect Earth’s life support systems, maintain biodiversity, and preserve our natural heritage
• Promote the recovery of, and protect, endangered species and ecosystems
• Control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful to native human and non-human animal species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such harmful organisms
• Manage the use of renewable resources such as water, soil, and forest products, in ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration and that protect the health of ecosystems
• Manage the extraction and use of non-renewable resources such as minerals and fossil fuels in ways that minimize depletion and cause no serious environmental damage.

6. Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach

• Take action to avoid the possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive
• Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for environmental harm
• Ensure that decision making addresses the cumulative, long-term, indirect, long distance, and global consequences of human activities
• Prevent pollution of any part of the environment and allow no build-up of radioactive, toxic, or other hazardous substances

7. Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth’s regenerative capacities, human and non-human animal rights, and community well-being

• Reduce, reuse, and recycle the materials used in production and consumption systems, and ensure that residual waste can be assimilated by ecological systems
• Act with restraint and efficiency when using energy, and rely increasingly on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind
• Promote the development, adoption, and equitable transfer of environmentally sound technologies
• Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards
• Ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction
• Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world

8. Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired

• Support international scientific and technical cooperation on sustainability, with special attention to the needs of developing nations
• Recognize and preserve the traditional knowledge and spiritual wisdom in all cultures that contribute to environmental protection and human and non-human animal well-being
• Ensure that information of vital importance to human and non-human animal health and environmental protection, including genetic information, remains available in the public domain

9. Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative

• Guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required
• Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves
• Recognize the ignored, protect the vulnerable, serve those who suffer, and enable them to develop their capacities and to pursue their aspirations

10. Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner

• Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations
• Enhance the intellectual, financial, technical, and social resources of developing nations, and relieve them of onerous international debt
• Ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental protection, and progressive labour standards
• Require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities

11. Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity

• Secure the human rights of women and girls and end all violence against them
• Promote the active participation of women in all aspects of economic, political, civil, social, and cultural life as full and equal partners, decision makers, leaders, and beneficiaries
• Strengthen families and ensure the safety and loving nurture of all family members

12. Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities

• Eliminate discrimination and oppression in all its forms, such as that based on race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, religion, language, national, ethnic or social origin, and species
• Affirm the right of indigenous peoples to their spirituality, knowledge, lands and resources and to their related practice of sustainable livelihoods
• Honour and support the young people of our communities, enabling them to fulfil their essential role in creating sustainable societies
• Protect and restore outstanding places of cultural and spiritual significance

13. Promote and strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision making, and access to justice

• Uphold the right of everyone to receive clear and timely information on environmental matters and all development plans and activities which are likely to affect them or in which they have an interest
• Support local, regional and global civil society, and promote the meaningful participation of all interested individuals and organizations in decision making
• Protect the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly, association, and dissent
• Institute effective and efficient access to administrative and independent judicial procedures, including remedies and redress for environmental harm and the threat of such harm
• Eliminate corruption in all public and private institutions
• Strengthen local communities, enabling them to care for their environments, and assign environmental responsibilities to the levels of government where they can be carried out most effectively

14. Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, skills and creativity needed for a sustainable way of life

• Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development
• Promote the contribution of creativity, the arts and humanities as well as the sciences in sustainability education
• Enhance the role of the mass media in raising awareness of ecological and social challenges
• Recognize the importance of moral and spiritual education for sustainable living

Further reading: Eco-pedagogy as the Appropriate Pedagogy to the Earth Charter Process

15. Treat all living beings with kindness, respect and consideration

• Abolish and prevent cruelty, exploitation, abuse, and slaughter to all non-human animals kept in human societies and prevent and protect them from suffering
• Abolish, prevent, and protect all wild animals from all methods of hunting, trapping, and fishing

16. Promote a culture of kindness, tolerance, nonviolence, compassion, and peace

• Encourage and support mutual understanding, solidarity, and cooperation among all peoples and within and among nations
• Implement comprehensive strategies to prevent violent conflict and use collaborative problem solving to manage and resolve environmental conflicts and other disputes
• Demilitarize national security systems to the level of a non-provocative defence posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration
• Eliminate nuclear, biological, and toxic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction
• Recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other species, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part
• Implement and promote peace education in the school curriculum

Such renewal is the promise of these Earth Charter principles. To fulfil this promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and objectives of the Charter.

This requires a change of mind and heart. As a result, it requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility.

We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally.

Our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision.

We must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the Earth Charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.

Life often involves tensions between important values.

This can mean difficult choices.

However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals.

Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play.

The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to offer creative leadership.

The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance.

Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for all life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.

The document was developed over nearly a decade through an extensive process of international consultation, to which over five thousand people contributed.
www.EarthCharter.org.